Book excerpt: In 1906 while the Namas, indigenous first people of Namibia, were engaged in a war with the German colonial Schutztruppe, the Luchtensteins, an immigrant family, arrived by ship in Luderitzbucht. They then left by ox wagon to a new home, three hundred kilometres into the interior. Ahead of them lay the treacherous sands of the Namib Desert; thirst, searing heat, freezing nights, the fury of the desert wind, wild animals